Time Waits for No One

"Can you tell me who your apprentice is?" the old man asked from his hospital bed.

Li Shutong shook his head. "No, he already has his own path, and he's doing very well on it. There's no need for him to expose it to the world so early."

"Look at me, I'm almost buried in the ground, and as my son, you can't even fulfill this small wish of your father?" The old man said in a low voice, "This old man just wants to know what his little grandson's name is and what he looks like. What bad intentions could this old man possibly have?"

"Stop pretending," Li Shutong raised an eyebrow. "There's no point in putting on this act in front of me."

"He must be very young, aren't you afraid he'll die young?" the old man asked. "The Federation is in turmoil these days. Kashima and Kamishiro have already amassed troops in the north, and a civil war could break out at any moment. I know knights have always valued self-reliance, but the problem is that times have changed. If no one protects him, he really will die in this chaotic world. Not to mention him, you will die too."

Li Shutong remained silent.

Many people have said that even demigods are not invincible.

Those people said those words out of their inner fears, but those words were indeed true.

For example, eight years ago, if the Li family hadn't intervened, the Scepter would probably have already killed Li Shutong with its main electromagnetic cannon...

Humanity's technological civilization has developed so rapidly that even demigods have to avoid its brunt.

It's not just the Scepter; in fact, every conglomerate has its own trump card to guard against the assassination capabilities of individual demigods.

It could even be said that the first half of the Federation's arms race history was based on the demigods.

Without exception, the conglomerates either cultivate their own demigods or research weapons powerful enough to kill them.

It's like when nuclear weapons appeared in the Outer World, everyone was researching how to cover the earth with nuclear bombs.

When something appears that threatens your life, all you can think about is how to deal with it.

For example, the Aerial Fortress "Scepter" was created for this purpose. Its 180-kilometer-long-range electromagnetic railgun can directly and accurately strike targets from the air without even needing a relay guidance.

Moreover, the 'Scepter' is not the only thing in this world capable of killing a demigod.

Times have indeed changed; humanity has now acquired weapons powerful enough to kill gods.

Li Shutong was deeply moved.

The old man looked at Li Shutong: "Will you take him with you on your trip to the north?"

"No," Li Shutong shook his head, "He's growing faster than I imagined, and I don't need to teach him anything anymore."

"Since you're not taking him, then leave him to me," the old man said with a smile. "Don't worry, although he's not a member of the Li family, I won't treat him differently because of that."

"No," Li Shutong raised an eyebrow.

"Then leave a legacy for the Li family before you leave," the old man said, no longer backing down. "Either you leave a bloodline, or you leave a legacy. Your master only took you as his disciple because he promised to find me a disciple from the Li family. Otherwise, do you think it would have been your turn?"

Li Shutong got angry. "My master took me as his disciple because he saw my efforts, what does that have to do with you?!"

"I don't care," the old man said, shaking his head.

Li Shutong thought for a moment and said, "I promise you that one day when the next generation of knights' leaders grows up, he must take a disciple from the Li family. Of course, this requires someone in the Li family to pass the Heart's Inquiry."

"Alright, it's settled then," the old man said, slowly closing his eyes after achieving his goal. "I'm tired, you can go now."

Li Shutong didn't care about the old man's attitude at all. Instead, he was a little surprised. "You're not stopping me from doing my thing? You should know that what I'm doing doesn't benefit the conglomerate. The Li family is also one of the conglomerates."

The old man said slowly, "Flowers never bloom again, and youth never returns. If you want to do something, do it before you get old, otherwise your later life will be full of regrets, and you won't be able to sleep at night."

"Well... there's no rush," Li Shutong said after thinking for a moment. "After all, I'm aging relatively slowly."

"Roll."

Return countdown: 110:00:00.

At 10 a. m. on the third day of his journey, Qing Chen re-secured the bandages and splints on his chest and abdomen at home to prevent further injury to his two broken ribs.

When he moved his body, the pain from the broken ribs caused a fine layer of sweat to appear on his forehead.

Inside the room, Yi thought for a moment and said, "Actually, you really don't need to go to such lengths. Is it worth risking your life again so soon for Liu Dezhu? If you want any information, you can make a deal with me. Although I can't be of great help, I can still give you some information, such as when various gangs will make a move against Heng Society."

"I don't want to do business with you anymore, it's bound to be bad," Qing Chen replied expressionlessly. "Besides, I'm not doing this for Liu Dezhu, but for myself and that gene serum. The remaining seven Life and Death Trial all require extensive training before I can attempt them. So, before I can An Xin break through them, I need to improve my ability to handle crises."

Ultimately, Qing Chen needs Liu Dezhu's abilities to protect him, and he also needs a bridge to communicate with the Outer World.

After thinking for a moment, she said, "There's no need to rush. Taking a two-week break first is always an option."

Qing Chen shook his head. "Time waits for no one."

At this moment, a black hovercar slowly came to a stop on the 67th floor of the Luoshen Building, and a light rail train was passing through the building on the 66th floor platform directly below.

In the 67th-floor parking lot, several people saw the auspicious cloud symbol on the black floating car and immediately kept their distance.

Everyone knows that this is the Li family's car.

A person got out of the car but did not leave. Instead, he stood quietly beside the car with his arms crossed in front of him, his posture upright.

His posture, like a javelin, immediately reveals him to be an elite member of the Federation Group Army.

There are many such people in various conglomerates. They excel in the federal service and are then selected by the conglomerates to work for various secret security companies at high salaries, serving the conglomerates as security personnel.

The federal charter does not allow corporations to own military forces, but they can own security companies, which can legally possess weapons after obtaining the necessary approvals.

There is no place in this world without flaws, and what conglomerates excel at is finding a hole to drill in a long river embankment and then causing the embankment to collapse.

Two minutes later, a boy in a white tracksuit stepped out of the elevator and approached the hovercar. "Have you been waiting long?"

"No, I only waited for you for two minutes, and it wasn't even the time we agreed on. You came down early," the security guard under Li Changqing who was responsible for picking up Qing Chen shook his head. To be honest, he had been working as a security guard for the conglomerate for more than two years, and this was the first time he had encountered someone fulfilling their promise ahead of schedule.

After Qing Chen got into the car, the security guard said into the communicator, "Picked up. Now we're heading back. Please confirm the access code for the Banshan Manor."

In the southwest wing of the Banshan Manor, Old Liu limped into the inner room and said to Li Changqing through the door, "Boss, the person has been picked up."

Li Changqing thought for a moment, then suddenly sent a message to the Heart Arsonist: "I saw you were badly injured, and I thought you would rest for a while. Why are you here to be my bodyguard so soon? Did you miss me that much?"

The Heart Arsonist: "Time waits for no one."

Yi was thinking. She was just answering with Qing Chen's original words. This shouldn't be considered causing trouble, right?

At this moment, Li Changqing suddenly asked, "What kind of compensation do you want for being my bodyguard?"

Yi silently calculated for a moment, then replied with a message: "What do you think?"

Li Changqing replied, "As far as I know, you are using the FDE gene serum. Coincidentally, I have control over this sequence of gene serums from the Li family. You should also know that FDE-003, 002, and 001 are no longer available for purchase outside."

Part 1: "So?"

"In half a month, the research lab will be able to produce the 12 sets of gene drug quotas for this year. I'll save one set for you as a reward, how about it?" Li Changqing sent the message with a smile.

One: "Okay, but the money can't be less."

It wasn't that Yi was particularly greedy; she was mainly worried that if she didn't have money, Qing Chen, that money-grubbing guy, wouldn't cooperate with her acting.

"Don't worry, the money won't be less than what you'd earn from a boxing match," Li Changqing said. "However, if I told you you had to choose between me and the gene serum, what would you choose?"

One person answered earnestly and sincerely, "I choose the gene serum, thank you."

Li Changqing pondered for a long time, wondering why the Heart Arsonist wasn't spouting sweet nothings today. This was rather unusual for her...

But it's not a big problem.

For Yi, play is play, joke is joke, but don't joke about serious matters.

Although she was playful, she knew very well that the gene serum was what Qing Chen urgently needed. With this, even if Qing Chen abandoned Liu Dezhu, he could quickly cultivate a B-Class team around him.

Even if each gene drug injection needs to be spaced one month apart, the interval between injecting 002 and then 001 needs to be even longer.

But at least this provides an extremely stable path to advancement. No matter who Qing Chen gives this gene serum to, it's only a matter of time before that person becomes B-Class.

Maximum of 8 months.

In the Federation Army, one would need at least the rank of senior colonel and secretly pledge allegiance to the corporation to have a chance of obtaining gene serums numbered 001 and 002. Once one obtained the gene serum, their life would be sold to the corporation.

It was only because Yibang Qing Chen directly confronted the person in charge of the gene serum that things seemed so easy.

The Knights' Challenge Life and Death Trial extremely dangerous, and if someone notices it, they might interfere. Chen Jiazhang suffered because he didn't have a protector, which is why he's now stuck at the sixth level.

If there were a C-Class Liu Dezhu and another B-Class expert protecting him, Qing Chen probably wouldn't have repeated the mistakes of his senior brother Chen Jiazhang.

At this moment, Yi sent the terms she had agreed upon with Li Changqing to Qing Chen so that Qing Chen would know the details.

Several tens of minutes later, the hovercar slowly came to a stop outside the Banshan Manor. Qing Chen underwent a strict body search before being personally led inside by Old Liu.

The Old Liu limped ahead and instructed, "Remember, no matter when you come to this place in the future, you can't bring weapons. Also, you and I can only move around in the southwest courtyard. If you trespass into other places, the consequence will most likely be that you'll be chopped up and fed to the dogs."

The power's been out at home all day, it's driving me crazy. There'll be another update later.